-LRB- CNN -RRB- Do n't call it a comeback , yet .

But if the Texas Knights , a branch of the Ku Klux Klan based in East Texas , get way their way , you could call it that . One recruiter , who asked to be called Henry , says there is a concerted effort to increase their membership .

`` There are flier drives , word of mouth , people meeting each other , we reach out to political meetings , to tea party meetings , conservative organizations , everything , '' Henry told CNN .

Henry says that in the last few months , he has personally recruited over 40 new members to the Texas Knights .

`` Our government considers us domestic terrorists , they consider us right-wing extremists . Because of that ... we wear the robe , the hood , to protect our identities and not to make us a bull 's - eye or target from FBI . ''

Experts who monitor hate groups like the KKK say the results of their efforts yield little fruit , as their ranks are as thin as they 've ever been . However , they warn that they still have dangerous potential .

`` Just because the Klan 's numbers are very small , and their activities have primarily been limited to an occasional gathering or leafleting , does n't mean that individuals who have been in their orbit ca n't act violently and commit an attack within the United States . That is the biggest threat now from groups like the Klan , '' said Brian Levin , the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino .

This push for new members has reached far beyond Texas . Recently , from New Jersey to Indiana to California , white supremacists have left literature at the homes of potential sympathizers . In the town of Harrison , Arkansas , the local KKK chapter sponsored a billboard directing the right listeners to tune in to `` White Pride Radio . ''

As far as racial pride is concerned , KKK recruiter Henry says that `` for me , I love my own people ... there is nothing wrong with blacks -LRB- or -RRB- African-Americans having their pride ; Hispanics have their pride , Orientals . ... '' Despite the scent of equality in his statement , in the same breath , he slams other races as `` lesser people . ''

Those who monitor these types of extremist groups say their numbers are nowhere near where they were in their heyday in the 1920s , when they boasted nearly 5 million members . Levin says the Klan has a membership of about 5,000 . The Southern Poverty Law Center gives a lower estimate of around 3,000 .

Henry claims that 's exactly what he and his compatriots want outsiders to believe . `` We want the public to see us as a shadow , not to know where we are . That 's how it should be . ''

From NY to Texas , KKK recruits with candies and fliers

CNN 's Ed Lavandera and Jason Morris contributed to this report .

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Experts who monitor hate groups like the KKK say their ranks are as thin as they 've ever been

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A Klan member from Texas says there 's an effort to increase group membership

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The director of an institution that studies hate and extremism says even small groups can be a threat to the U.S.